Dear IYPF friends and colleagues

This e-mail comes to you instead of our scheduled September 2007 newsletter.

We are very busy here preparing for a range of big announcements and changes on the IYPF’s 6th Birthday – which is next Thursday 4th October!

We look forward to giving you a special IYPF 6th Birthday edition newsletter then – incorporating our planned September content on the International Day of Peace on Sept 21 – and showcasing changes at IYPF and our new direction.

The next newsletter after 4th October will be distributed early November and will incorporate content related to Poverty Eradication - International Day for the Eradication of Poverty being on October 17; Sustainable Consumption – given Buy Nothing Day being celebrated on November 26; and Sustainable Transport & Energy – because October is 34 years since the oil crisis of the 70s and not much has changed. If you have anything you would like to contribute to this newsletter, please send your thoughts, comments, articles, etc. to newsletter@iypf.org by 20th October.

To keep your thirst for information and inspiration quenched, I have included below a few snippets of IYPF news – with links to full articles if you wish to explore further.

See you again next week!

Cameron
CEO

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> IYPS 2008 Applications Are Open!

Download an application from the link below to attend the next International Young Professionals Summit in Manchester next August. Applications are due end of November 2007.

* For more info see: http://iypf.tigblog.org/post/249959
* Download the application here: http://www.iyps.org/iyps08/IYPS2008_Application_Form.doc
* For more on IYPS 2008, go here: http://www.iyps.org


> Stand Up Against Poverty with IYPF on October 17!

Hundreds of young professionals are planning to meet up online and face to face to join thousands of others participating in the Stand Up global action on Wednesday October 17.

* To read more on how you can organise an event, or to find one to attend, go to:
http://www.iyps.org/iyps08/regional_local_events.htm
* For examples of what others are doing, go here: http://iypf.tigblog.org/post/251355
* To read more on Global Poverty & the Bottom Billion, go here: http://iypf.tigblog.org/post/249945
* To join the global online event on Facebook, go here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=4830586444
* To join the global online event on TakingITGlobal, go here:
http://events.takingitglobal.org/15741


> How Does Your Job Impact on the MDGs?

We want to know how your paid or voluntary work is helping to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Vote in our poll and join the discussions here: http://iypf.tigblog.org/post/249963

Here are some examples of IYPF Stand Up events which are being organised across the World for Wednesday October 17:

Country: UK
What: Fundraising Dinner
Who: 25 Young Professionals
Event Coordinator: Sarah-Jo Dawson
Contact: sarahjodawson@iypf.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=5375859972

The event will be a fundraising dinner with speakers from IYPF between each course and a discussion at the end on how YPs can help to achieve the MDGs. Sarah-Jo Dawson, IYPF President, will read the Millennium Pledge. Attendees will bring photographs of poverty and Young Professionals helping to fight poverty in the UK. There will be a fundraising raffle with eco-friendly prizes and white bands will be on sale. White banners are being made for the event using recycled materials.

Country: Nigeria
What: Street Party
Who: 100 Young Professionals
Event Coordinator: EsterEshiet
Contact: daisydiamond2000@yahoo.com

The event will be a street rally with talk shows at strategic points. There is a target audience of 100 people. People will wear white bands and T shirts and there will be refreshments.

Country: Peru
What: Party
Event Coordinator: Ursula Carrascal
Contact: ucarrascal@yahoo.es

The event is at a restaurant run by young social entrepreneurs. Photos of the recent earthquake disaster in Peru will be shown, as well as photos of members of the VIDA organisation working to put up solar powered cookers in the Ica area. Guests will also watch a video and recieve a flyer on "Young social entrepreneurs and the MDGs" written by members of IYPF

> Join in the TIG Discussion on How Your Job impacts on the Millennium Development Goals

A new poll and discussion thread has been added to the IYPS2008 TIG Page. The theme is How Your Job impacts on the Millennium Development Goals. The poll, set up by IYPS2008 Communications Coordinator and IYPF Director Mariana Ballestero, asks IYPF members to say which Millennium Development Goal their job mainly contributes to achieving. Mariana then asks us to talk about what makes our work effective in helping to achieve the MDGs.

Go here to contribute: http://events.takingitglobal.org/14421/discuss/thread/25063

Hopefully this will lead to an interesting and thought provoking discussion where we can - learn more about one anothers' roles as Young Professionals - find out about jobs which we may find interesting as future career moves - learn about who are the experts in different fields - find out about any overlaps between our jobs - start to network on multidisciplinary projects to achieve the MDGs

An application form has been sent out to anyone who has expressed an interest in attending IYPS2008 via our website. This should be returned by the end of November 2007 at the latest, but earlier if possible. You can download an application form here:
http://www.iyps.org/iyps08/IYPS2008_Application_Form.doc

In deciding who should attend IYPS2008, the organising committee will be looking for Young Professionals, aged 21 to 40, who are already or who will be able to make a significant contribution to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. We will also be trying to ensure a broad representation of delegates from different regions of the World, in different professions and across the MDG sector interests. By the end of this year, we will be inviting successful applicants to register for the event using an online registration process. Successful applicants may also apply to receive, in exceptional circumstances only, assistance for attending the event, and we will also send formal letters of invitation for relevant visas.

If you apply but are not accepted to attend in person, please do not be disappointed. We have had an exceptional response so far and places are limited. However, we will ensure there are lots of ways to get involved next August whether by watching webcasts of the speakers, getting involved in web blogs or attending local / regional meetings during the IYPS2008 event. Some people may even prefer this as a way of attending, rather than flying to the UK, as it will minimise carbon footprints.

What does poverty look like globally now? Read the opinion piece below (an extract is included and you can read the rest online) for an insight in to 'The Bottom Billion' and how systems are keeping the Least Developed Countries in poverty.

What can we as young professionals do to make a positive difference for 'The Bottom Billion'?

This is one of the things we can discuss on October 17 as part of the Stand Up events being held globally and online. See here for more information http://www.iyps.org/iyps08/regional_local_events.htm.


Trade beats aid when it comes to helping poor
By Ross Gittins, for the Sydney Morning Herald, September 15, 2007

It no longer makes much sense to think of the countries of the world as divided into rich and poor. Globalisation has created a big category in the middle.

It used to be common to picture the world's population as 1 billion rich and 5 billion poor. The 1 billion rich are people in the 30 countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Today, however, it is more meaningful to think of 1 billion rich and 4 billion in countries that are rapidly developing and converging on living standards on the rich, leaving 1 billion in countries that are "falling behind and often apart".

This is the thesis of The Bottom Billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it, by Paul Collier. Collier's thesis is discussed at length in an article by Terry O'Brien in the Treasury's latest Economic Roundup.

See
here for the full text of the article.